In various wireless mesh networks (WMNs), such as wireless local area networks (WLANs), data streams may be affected by jitter and/or delay, increasing latency, for instance. Such increases may be magnified with larger node counts (e.g., hops) in the network. In situations where data streams include real-time data (e.g., audio and/or video), increased latency in the network may hinder and/or prevent real-time viewing, for instance.
Previous approaches to managing wireless mesh networks may implement carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) methods and/or mechanisms to reserve a wireless medium, for example. However, approaches using CSMA/CA may be unable to guarantee the medium reservation for a given node when needed. Additionally, if the wireless medium is not idle (e.g., another node reserved the medium), a node may wait for a random period of “backoff” time before being able to transmit data through the medium, for instance, increasing latency.